Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age: Origins

Developers
	BioWare
macOS (OS X)	TransGaming Inc.
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Engines
	Eclipse
Release dates
Windows	November 3, 2009
macOS (OS X) (Cider)	December 3, 2009
Reception
Metacritic	91
IGDB	90
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, DLC, Expansion pack, Subscription gaming service
Microtransactions	Currency
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Continuous turn-based
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view, Third-person
Controls	Multiple select, Point and select
Genres	RPG
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Fantasy, LGBTQ
Series	Dragon Age

Dragon Age
Dragon Age: Origins	2009
Dragon Age II	2011
Dragon Age: Inquisition	2014
Dragon Age: Dreadwolf	TBA

Dragon Age: Origins is a singleplayer bird's-eye view and third-person RPG game in the Dragon Age series.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Dragon Age Toolset (allows the creation of custom campaigns etc.)

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Ultimate Edition DLC must be activated online.
Amazon.com
GOG.com		Ultimate Edition.
Microsoft Store		Ultimate Edition. Included exclusively with Xbox Game Pass for PC as part of its version of EA Play.
Origin		Ultimate Edition, included with EA Play.
Steam		Ultimate Edition, included with EA Play (Steam). No longer region locked.
Amazon.com (unavailable)
(unavailable)
Games for Windows Marketplace (unavailable)
Humble Store (unavailable)

All product keys can be optionally activated on Origin.

The macOS (OS X) version is no longer available for purchase after TransGaming Inc. shut down their GameTree Mac service in 2015.

Monetization

Type	Notes
DLC	The DLC include story missions and items.
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.
Subscription gaming service	Available via EA Play.

DLC and expansion packs

All DLCs, including Awakening expansion is free as of August 15, 2022.

For the Origin version, free DLC can be claimed by selecting Dragon Age: Origins in the Origin game library, navigating to the Extra Content tab, then pressing the buttons by each DLC pack. Once claimed, the Origin client will automatically download and install DLC with the game.

For other versions, free DLC can be downloaded manually from the EA support site. The .exe files are self-contained installers, while the .dazip files should be installed with the content updater tool at <path-to-game>\bin_ship\DAUpdater.exe.

Name	Notes
Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
The Darkspawn Chronicles
Golems of Amgarrak
Leliana's Song
Return to Ostagar
Witch Hunt
The Stone Prisoner
Warden's Keep
Blood Dragon Armor	Not listed at the EA support site
Feastday Combo Pack 1 & 2	Includes both Feastday Gifts and Feastday Pranks
Feastday Gifts
Feastday Pranks
Promotional Pack	Not listed at the EA support site

Essential improvements

Patches

The latest patch is Dragon Age: Origins 1.05. Applying this patch is highly recommended (GOG.com, Steam and Origin users do not need to install the patch). Note that the Ultimate Edition retail version comes pre-patched to 1.04, so applying the patch is still recommended.

Numerous further issues are fixed in Qwinn's Ultimate Dragon Age: Origins Fixpack mod (but be aware that it is incompatible with many other mods). Combine it with Dain's Fixes to fix numerous combat bugs. Both mods are compatible and complement each other well to fix all remaining problems in the game.

Dragon Age: Awakening Fixes

The Awakening Expansion is notoriously buggy with several quests being prone to soft-locking, this means they're no longer able to be completed depending on how player's handle the quests. While other quests have annoying bugs such as the Player being unable to retrieve their gear in the Silverite Mines. Unlike Origins, Awakening does not have a complete fixes pack and hence, Individual preventive fixes are recommended before playing. Mod pages may contain minor spoilers.

• Law and Order/Sigrun's Quest Fix
• Bombs Away Quest Fix
• Silverite Mine Fix
• Riot Scene Fix
• Joining Ritual Fix
• Messenger Fix
• Endgame Cutscene Fix
• Baroness Reward Fix
• Dragon Blackblade drop fix

Modifications

• NTCore's 4GB patch allows you to patch the game's executable to let it use up to 4 GB of RAM (as opposed to the default 2 GB limit). You must be running a 64-bit version of Windows to properly use the patch. To patch your game, be sure to install the latest update and backup the game's executable before patching it.
  • Works with the Origin version and the GOG.com version. The Steam version can use the exe located in this Steam guide to use the 4GB patch.

• Console font is the file that is often missing from the install data. Install this to make console commands visible.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age\Settings\DragonAge.ini
Microsoft Store
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/47810/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age\Characters\
Microsoft Store
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/47810/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Origin
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud
Xbox Cloud

Video

Video settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			At higher resolutions, the text can be difficult to read. Use the FtG UI Mod.
Multi-monitor			See Multi-monitor.
Ultra-widescreen			Dialog screens are pillarboxed.
4K Ultra HD			UI does not scale with resolution and is extremely small in 4K. Use the FtG UI Mod to partially improve text readability, however this only helps with some menus.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		Missing menu option. Toggle with Alt+↵ Enter.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Works with Borderless Gaming. In BG settings make sure to set the resolution to your native res, to avoid inaccurate mouse placement.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		The option in DragonAge.ini appears to do nothing. Force through the GPU control panel instead.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Nvidia users can force SGSSAA in Nvidia Profile Inspector using the 0x004010C0 antialiasing compatibility bits.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Some things like other characters' movement in dialogues are still capped at 30 FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Multi-monitor

Custom resolutions, wider than 16:9[citation needed]
You may need to manually add resolutions wider than 16:9. Edit %USERPROFILE%\Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age\Settings\DragonAge.ini. Change ResolutionWidth= and ResolutionHeight= to the desired resolution. Notes Use Widescreen Fixer with this plugin to fix HUD position.

Input

Controls settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Controller types

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		SFX, music and dialogue.
Surround sound		Up to 5.1 output.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio		The exception is the track "This Is War" by 30 Seconds to Mars.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech
French
German
Hungarian
Italian
Polish				DLC translations can be found here and here.
Brazilian Portuguese				Base game and DLCs, download.
Russian				Fix #1 and Fix #2
Spanish				Official translation.
Spanish				Improved fan translation by Clan Dlan, download.

The game by default installs all voice files. More than 10 GB can be saved by deleting unnecessary languages in <path-to-game>\modules\single player\audio\vo and <path-to-game>\modules\single player\locale.

VR support

3D modes	State	GG3D	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision			See also Helix Mod: Dragon Age:Origins UPDATED.
iZ3D
vorpX		G3D Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Issues unresolved

Ultimate Edition crashes to desktop on exit

The Ultimate Edition of Dragon Age: Origins sometimes crashes upon exiting.

Issues fixed

• Steam users have been compiling a list of in-game bugs on the Steam Forums. Some bugs, and their solutions, may be listed there.

EA Account log-in issues

If you encountering issues logging into Dragon Age: Origins with an EA Account, it is most likely because the password contains special characters (like "#"), which the game does not support.

Change the EA Account password to not include such characters using the EA Account control panel

Failed to find supported video card driver

Change the way fullscreen is applied[citation needed]
Go to the installation folder. Open DAOriginsConfig.exe and disable Fullscreen mode. Activate Fullscreen from the options in-game.

Crash to desktop

GOG/Origin: Apply the 4 GB patch
Make a backup copy of <path-to-game>\bin_ship\daorigins.exe Download and unzip the 4 GB Patch program Start the program and choose the game's daorigins.exe file (a backup is automatically created) If the patching is successful, start the game If the game does not start, replace the patched exe with the backup.

Steam: Apply the 4 GB patch
Make a backup copy of <path-to-game>\bin_ship\daorigins.exe Download and unzip the pre-patched exe from the guide on the Steam forums Replace the original daorigins.exe and start the game If the game does not start, replace the patched exe with the backup.

Set CPU core affinity to only two cores.[citation needed]

Lower the graphics settings (regardless of the computer's performance)[citation needed]
Open the Video tab in the Options window Change graphic details and texture details to medium This might only affect specific areas of the game; restore the settings later

Disable Tactics
Click the Tactics button visible in the top menu In the bottom left: Click the button which says Disable Tactics Repeat step 2 for all characters in your party This might only affect specific areas of the game; restore the settings later

Sign out of Bioware/EA games account in-game
Being signed in seems to cause significant & rapid loss of performance and high frequency of crashing. Click the Sign Out button visible in the bottom left of the Main Menu or the menu that appears during gameplay when pressing Escape. You may want to wait until after the game has awarded you loot for previously completing certain Challenges/DLC before signing out.

Enable DLC on the Steam version

If the initial install script on Steam fails, the DLCs may not be properly enabled.

Enable DLCs manually
Close Steam. Go into <path-to-game>. Execute redist\DAUServiceSetup_Steam.exe and redist\DAOU_UpdateAddinsXML_Steam.exe. Restart Steam and launch the game.

Can not use DLC offline

Disable automatic login
Log in in-game with Internet access to authenticate the current DLC. Log out of the account in-game. Ensure "always log me in" is unchecked. Continue playing normally. If more DLC is added after this point, repeat these steps to authorise it for offline use.

Minor hair visual glitch

The game's internal anti-aliasing does not interact well with its depth of field. During cutscenes, this can lead to minor visual glitches around certain characters' hair or clothes.

Turn off in-game AA. You can still activate it via your graphics card (e.g. FXAA in Nvidia Control Panel).

Use mod to deactivate depth of field effect.

Deactivate frame buffer in the game options. However, this deactivates all post-processing, making the game look worse.

PhysX fails to initialize when starting game

PhysX fails to initialize when starting game
Uninstall currently installed PhysX driver (even if it is the latest version) Install the latest NVIDIA PhysX System Software.

Error: Switch from current encoding to specified encoding not supported

Install an older MSXML version[citation needed]

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Middleware

Uses SpeedTreeRT for trees modelling

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	PhysX	2.8.1
Audio	FMOD Ex	4.24.24
Cutscenes	Bink Video	1.8v

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP SP3	Vista SP1, 7
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Single Core 1.6 GHz AMD Athlon X2 64 2.0 GHz	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz AMD Phenom II X2 2.7 GHz
System memory (RAM)	1 GB (XP) 1.5 GB (Vista, 7)	2 GB (XP) 3 GB (Vista, 7)
Hard disk drive (HDD)	20 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon X850 (XP) ATI Radeon X1550 (Vista, 7) Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT (XP) Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT (Vista, 7) 128 MB of VRAM	ATI Radeon HD 3850 Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB of VRAM
Sound (audio device)	DirectX compatible

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	10.6.2
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo
System memory (RAM)	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	17 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon X1600 Nvidia GeForce GT 7300